AlexDw

Back in November, I was screwed over by a cowboy builder/rogue trader, who used fake and fraudulent recommendations to secure my business, before walking on the job after taking over £1.4K of my cash, leaving everything in a state of terrible chaos. Partially ripped out. No doors on either the loo or the bathroom. Carnage.

 

The bathroom and toilet (along with other jobs like hanging doors and building wardrobes) has recently been done by Gary Skinner et al of First Choice Decorating (07572588222), and he's done a tremendous job. Picking up the wreckage of bad plumbing made worse, and making it good, and presiding over complicated work like replacing the boiler, putting a mixer shower into a wall that should really be too thin, and putting in an extra basin, taking pipes up underneath the floor to do so.

 

He and his team (Ray; Dave; Steve) have worked very hard, tried to be considerate, and their finish has broadly been excellent. They?ve overcome all sorts of challenges thrown up by the peculiarities of my house. And by own exacting demands!

 

They've also done everything by the book ; electrical and gas work properly certificated; everything complying fully with building regulations. The workmanship is guaranteed fully for a year, and the pricing reasonable.

 

It?s a stressful business hiring someone to do work like this. Especially given the fraudulent recommendations flying around. But I am happy to give a reference for Gary verbally, via the telephone, or you could even come and have a look at his work in person.

I think the reality is not as clear-cut as them being ?con-men? ? at least in my case.

I think they probably intended to do the job ? otherwise why would they bother turning up on day one at all? (When they turned up four hours late. Day two they didn?t bother turning up at all...)

The problem was that they gained my business through fraudulent recommendations ? fake Dulwich Forum accounts which I think is beyond all reasonable doubt were run by ?Will?, seeing as they were hooked up to his email accounts.

This is a serious criminal offence.

Then it turns out they lack the ability to do the job (I wonder if they had ever done a bathroom properly before ? I strongly suspect not). And walk out on it after I contact the fake Dulwich forum (these ?very good customers? of ?Will?s) accounts saying I am very worried about the job.

But by this point I?d already handed over ?1409 (*ouch*). And the work that has been done has been valued at ?maybe a couple of hundred quid at most?.

So I want my money back ? and Will agrees, in writing, to give me some of my money back.

But it never arrives. Deadlines are missed. Excuses are made and ridiculous lies made up and then retracted.

No money ever coming back to me is why I start this thread. If I get my money back, I leave it at that (not at that point realising the recommendations came from fraudulent accounts).

I?ve now received ?100 back ? a fraction of the money I?ve lost ? but this is only because of the heat that has been generated by this thread.

(In the interests of full disclosure, there had been some difficulties on the job, of deliveries not arriving when they were supposed to. ?Will? thought this was a terrible disaster and prevented him from proceeding ? and I, not being a bathroom fitter, took him at his word at. I offered him any compensation the delivery company were prepared to offer.

But this doesn?t change the fact my business was secured through fraud. And it?s also something of a red herring ? the honest tradesmen who picked up the pieces, ripped everything out to properly fix the plumbing, and didn?t install any of the suite until they had been at the job for well over a week).

It?s unfortunate, but one crime, has led to another. And now the cat is out of the bag.

If anyone else has reported this to the police, please PM me, and I?ll give you my crime reference number so this can all be tied together.

It's very easy to make up a fake email address - especially one so generic as 'mattsmith4563'. I could do it in seconds. Those ones do look very suspicious!

We're lucky that 'Will' has been so foolish as to set up fake accounts on here using his personal email addresses. Email addresses that clearly don't match the names of the forum members.

Is there a dedicated police officer to this case?

Be better to speak to the same human being, rather than just going through a helpline. I'm wary of this all getting chucked down a black hole.

My recommendations also came from "lordshiplanegirl" and "JenniferSE22"

I then had a dialogue with "lordshiplanegirl" that led to 'Will' firstly walking on the job (as he had been told by two good customers I thought his work was rubbish!). And then that continued afterwards, with her robustly defending his work and saying how great he is.

She knew all sorts of details like this being my first house, that Will had allegedly told her.

With hindsight it's obvious - Lordshiplanegirl *is* 'Will'.

'Will' has also used the email address Will Spike will20130@****.com in his correspondence with me.

I don't suppose this matches with any Dulwich Forum accounts does it, Admin?

Dishonest. Incompetent. Unreliable.

I was recommended this person on this forum after appealing for help when it turned out the bathroom of my new house needed replacing pronto as there were bad leaks. These recommendations came through private rather than public messages.

I?m now starting a small claims court claim against him to get my money back; and informing trading standards.

I was over trusting of this forum ? I thought if someone comes recommended by private messages, these must be from real people. I?m not sure this is the case anymore. I wish I had searched the archives of this forum before hiring him ? there are a host of bad reviews. I am angry at myself for being so stupid.

I gave ?Will? (real name Scott Pike) ?850 up front (again, stupid) ? this was 1/3 of the cost of the job. I later gave him ?200 in cash for rubbish collection; and transferred an additional ?359 for 'materials'. Again, I am angry at myself for being so stupid.

I was immediately concerned ? he seemed flaky, not showing up when he said he would, ignoring texts, emails and calls, for days at a time, and he seemed to do very little work.

At one point he called saying he was going to do some tiling, but was going to have a double brandy and coke at the local pub to relax first. ?!

And the subcontracters he hired were equally incompetent ? one ?plumber? caused an incident with the police after getting a ?spade? out on another job (at least this was according to a text from 'Will').

Concerned, I messaged the people who recommended him saying I was worried ? he had been recommended to me as a competent and reliable tradesman, but he seemed anything but.

I then get a text from ?Will? saying he is quitting the job ? he?s heard from two customers I think his work is rubbish, so that?s it, rather than do the job to a high standard, he?s quitting. Leaving me with an unusable bathroom set-up (especially in a house that two people live in!) - the sink is gone from the bathroom; the doors have been removed from both rooms; and the toilet is leaking.

But in hindsight, that has been something of a blessing. Tradesmen who came round to quote in the aftermath of this have described the work done as ?cowboy?; ?worthless?; ?beyond incompetent?. Including wonky wall tiles that would never meet the floor tiles, tiling on the wrong surfaces, unsafe plumbing, and buying the wrong materials. Two have offered to appear as witnesses in court.

I demanded my money back from ?Will? ? saying I would take him to court, and to trading standards unless he does so. He agrees, but this leads to a merry dance ? including the ridiculous lie that he had ?left the money outside my house? (?and so someone must have taken it?)? that hasn?t seen a single penny repaid. So I?m taking him to court.

Inexplicably, this person is still getting private recommendations. The people who are doing these should be ashamed of themselves ? people are losing money and having misery inflicted on them. Although, I strongly suspect these are not genuine, one person appears to have posted almost nothing but recommendations for ?Will?. The ?architect? who always hires ?Will? and has done for years sounds too good to be true. Apparently he has done complete house refits ? but his workmanship is so incompetent I struggle to see how this is possible.

Avoid at all costs. Spread the word.

Sounds suspiciously like a scam. I hope you've not given anyone money.